Overview

Offering superior managed services to customers around the world takes a commitment to strong IT security. Founded in 2007, AlertBoot has a proven record of delivering comprehensive, customizable disk encryption software applications as fully managed services for companies of any size. This has resulted in more than 300,000 endpoints under management in highly regulated industries such as finance, manufacturing, and healthcare.

The underlying design philosophy at AlertBoot is that software doesn’t have to be complicated to be powerful. With more than nine years of experience delivering Software as a Service, AlertBoot is well positioned to offer the comprehensive, centrally managed AlertBoot endpoint security solution.

AlertBoot has been a Trend Micro customer and partner since 2012 and currently deploys Trend Micro Mobile Security for both its staff and customers.

Challenges

Since launching its easy-to-use, cloud-based data encryption managed service in 2010, AlertBoot has rapidly developed an international base of customers. Today, the company and its resellers continue to simplify security and lower total cost of ownership for small and medium businesses as well as large enterprises.

"Mobile Security lets us view the thousands of smart devices used by our customers’ employees."

Timothy MaliyiFounder and CEO, AlertBoot

Along with its customers, the security experts at AlertBoot kept a close watch on consumerization trends. As businesses were dealing with increasing numbers and types of mobile smart devices showing up on their networks, the “bring your own device” (BYOD) movement created demand for a related security service. The sheer volume of the devices and a lack of control by IT raised many concerns about protecting business assets and information.

“Clients were telling us that they like our security model and console—we give them a bird’s eye view of their environment in terms of encryption and compliance for desktops and laptops,” explained Timothy Maliyil, the founder and CEO of AlertBoot. “These business customers told us that they would be all over it if we went into the mobile space. They wanted an AlertBoot managed service that would give them the economies of a cloud-based solution for protecting mobile devices.”

Solution

Before they could introduce a managed service for smart devices, AlertBoot needed an enterprise-class security solution that could be integrated into its management platform. “We have evaluated the mobile security solutions from the leading vendors, but most are not comprehensive or stable enough,” said Maliyil. “Trend Micro Mobile Security is by far the best solution for us—the feature set, maturity of the product, and the overall support of the product makes it a stand- out from the competition. The others have a long way to go, and our distribution partners strongly objected to any other solution.”

AlertBoot thoroughly evaluated and tested Mobile Security, especially for its abilities to integrate into its console and to scale for its largest customers.

“We found that Mobile Security could be folded into our highly secure console,” said Maliyil. “Mobile Security is built for SMBs and enterprises—we can scale up to support our largest enterprise and government customers. And Trend Micro quality far surpasses our expectations in comparison
to other vendors.”

Scalability, in fact, is a priority for AlertBoot. To support large-scale enterprises and government customers, AlertBoot is building a clustering mechanism using the Trend Micro security technology.

“We can scale to support 100K+ devices for a single customer, using our single console,” said Maliyil. “This is important because we are currently courting government customers that are 50K+ device opportunities. To make this work, our engineers are designing for scalability to a potentially infinite number of devices in a single agency or enterprise—something that no one else has ever offered.”

Trend Micro Mobile Security also met AlertBoot’s requirements for device management and protection features. AlertBoot customers will be offered a service that includes the ability to lock devices, enforce password policies, control applications, and more.

“Manageability is crucial for us and for helping our clients meet compliance requirements,” said Maliyil. “This calls for visibility. Mobile Security lets us view the thousands of smart devices used by our customers’ employees. We can see the version levels, and identify those that are out of compliance or going against company use policies.”

“We can also minimize risks related to lost devices—from our central console, Mobile Security lets us lock down data or perform remote wipes on those devices. This feature lets our customers prove compliance, and show that data is not being compromised. It keeps businesses out of trouble with governance bodies and shareholders, and helps prevents the loss of IP and sensitive data.”

Why Trend Micro

AlertBoot needed a solution that could be easily integrated into its management console and to scale for its largest customers. They investigated a number of security vendor solutions, but found that none of the solutions met the scalability, quality, and usability demands they required for their customers except for Trend Micro offerings.

Trend Solutions

Trend Micro Solutions

Mobile Security

Endpoint Encryption

Control Manager

Results

With its deployment of Trend Micro Mobile Security, AlertBoot has been able to launch its managed security service for mobile devices. The customers ultimately win, with the ability to give employees the choice of iPhones, iPads, Android phones, and other smart devices for work.

“I travel a lot, and I get it—the newest smartphones are great travel companions,” said Maliyil. “The time-saving apps, GPS, and just the sheer entertainment value for down times are all driving demand to allow these devices for work. Before Mobile Security, we had no control of the smart devices. Now we can provide a service that lets businesses meet user demands and enforce policies that foster secure, mobile workforces.”

The AlertBoot service extends its “single pane of glass” management capability to the incredible variety of smart phones, notebooks, and handheld devices. The service provider has already seen a groundswell of demand for the service.

“For our customers, mobile device management is a major requirement within many bigger opportunities,” said Maliyil.

“Trend Micro Mobile Security enables a device security service that is flexible and stable—this is core to our philosophy. Plus, it makes it easy. The last thing we want to do is introduce complexity. We are very excited about Mobile Security, and we are actively looking at other Trend Micro products for the potential to launch other managed services based on them. Trend Micro has proven to be a good company to work with.”

What's Next

Pleased with its Trend Micro partnership, AlertBoot plans to migrate to the next versions of Trend Micro™ Endpoint Encryption and Trend Micro Mobile Security, and deploy Trend Micro™ Control Manager™ across their system. “We couldn’t be happier with our relationship with Trend Micro. They’ve been responsive to our needs as we move forward with their products and services,” said Maliyil.